Spring Break

A few weeks ago, I had a wonderful Spring break with my Mom and Dad, who came to visit me! First they spend a week on their 4th (5th?) honeymoon in Germany (with a small side-trip to Austria), then they met me in Paris so I could show them around France. I took a train from Nantes to Paris and got in about an hour before my parents, so I was waiting in the hotel by the time my they arrived. I saw them pull up, then crept outside so they would see me right away when they got out of their taxi. It was a joyous reunion complete with tearful embraces and a loud scream of excitement from Mom.

We spent a couple days in the bustling capital city, hitting most of the tourist attractions and famous monuments. Highlights include the Eiffel Tower (of course), Sainte-Chapelle, the Louvre pyramid, and the Arc de Triomphe. We even visited Notre Dame de Paris during Sunday mass, which was really cool, albeit very crowded. Unfortunately, we got there a half hour or so after the tower closed, so we were unable to climb up and get a aerial view of the city. There's always next time!

Sainte-Chapelle

Le Louvre

After a couple days in Paris, we rented a car and headed northwest to Normandy, where we visited Omaha beach, the American WWII cemetery, and Pointe du Hoc. I had just been to these places with IES, but it was nice to show the 'rents. Besides, each time is a different experience.

Mom and Dad at Omaha Beach

We didn't have a reservation for a place to stay, so we just drove along the coast until we came across a cute town a bit west of Pointe du Hoc, called Grandcamp-Maisy. It was already after 7pm when we inquired about a room within the nearest hotel, but everything worked out and our room was adorable. We were right on the ocean and even had a window that you could stick most of your body out of to better enjoy the seaside view.

Next, we hit the road again to visit one of my favorite French tourist locales: Mont St. Michel. We had to wait in line for awhile, but the conversation we had with a nice Brazilian couple we met made it more bearable, and the view from the top was more than worth the wait. We stopped at a restaurant on the way down and my parents enjoyed their first ever French galette. Despite all the walking up and down hills and stairs at Mont St. Michel, by late afternoon we were still raring to go and explore the walled city St. Malo. Lucky for us the weather cooperated for us the whole time, a rarity for Bretagne (Brittany)!

Walking along the St. Malo wall

After a couple more days on the road and one troublesome déviation (detour), we finally made it to my home for the semester, Nantes. I was so excited to show them around my neck of the woods and introduce them to my host family. Despite a slight language barrier, everyone hit it off really well! It was so strange for me to hear my host parents and sisters speaking English for the first time all semester, but I was very impressed (especially with my 21-year-old sister, Claire-Anais, who seems to be nearly fluent). 

Me and the host fam

I'm so happy my parents were able to come to France--now maybe they understand why I love it here so much. 

The day after Mom and Dad returned to the US, my host family invited me to go with them to their country house on the coast in a small town called Locmariaquer. I got to bond with Adelaide and her friend Julie--we
walked along the beach, took goofy pictures together, and watched Poucelina (Thumbelina in French). My host dad grew up in a neighboring town, so he and my host mom proudly showed me around and told me stories of the history of the area. We saw the ancient and mysterious stones of Carnac, toured the Locmariaquer harbor, checked out an impressive photo art gallery, and stopped at a delicious creperie for dessert. Ahh, France never ceases to amaze me.  

April Update

This week, I had a big homework assignment/paper due in each of my classes. For my art history class, I wrote a 5 page paper about the influence of Japan on 19th century French painters, for French Romanticism, I wrote 5 pages defending a quote about fantasy tales (for which I had to read and cite three different books), and for religion class I wrote a 4 page biography about Jacques Maritain, a French Catholic philosopher. Yikes. Needless to say I've been quite busy and stressed the last week or so, but it feels so good to have finished all my work. Now it's spring break! When I return to Nantes after my week off, I will only have one week left of classes then it'll be finals week already. I can't believe how quickly this semester has flown by! Here's a review of what I've been up to the last couple weeks:

Two weekends ago (April 8-10), I took a train to Paris to visit my friend Shelvy for a couple days. It's crazy how easy it is just to pop over to Paris for the weekend; it's just a painless 2 hour train ride--like going to Chicago from home or school. Shelvy is studying in Paris for the semester, so she's probably seen the famous monuments and taken pictures a million times already, but she humored me and let me play the tourist. We visited Notre Dame de Paris and Les Invalides, picnicked beneath the Eiffel Tower (and again at Jardin de Luxembourg), and went to a big party hosted by her university. It was great to see Shelvy and all that Paris has to offer, but I'm so glad I chose to study in Nantes for the semester instead of the bustling French capital. While there's undoubtedly a lot of interesting things do there, I heard so much English and saw countless American fast-food chains and other "comforts" from home. I really appreciate the language and cultural immersion I've been able to experience this semester in Nantes. I have my frustrations and failures, but I know I've improved so much in French thanks to the lack of opportunity to lapse into speaking English while with my host family, at restaurants and in stores, or sitting in class. But having Paris so close and accessible to visit means I really have the best of both worlds.

Looking super French with Shelvy by the Eiffel Tower

The Nantes Canaries are the yellow guys

Last Friday, a group of IES students went to a Nantes soccer game for a real cultural sports experience. It was a lot of fun despite a 1-1 tie game and a mostly empty stadium. The most exciting part was when someone dressed up as a big bag of chips came dancing out on the field...unfortunately I did not capture that on camera.

Picnic time!

Then on Saturday, we took a day trip to the cute little Italian-inspired neighboring town, Clisson. My friend Alyssa and I explored the adorable streets and scoped out a boulangerie where we bought sandwiches for lunch. We met up with a bunch of other IES peeps and had a nice picnic alongside the river, Château de Clisson looming in the distance.  It was such a beautiful, relaxing day that I fell asleep in the grass halfway through eating my sandwich. 

So classy.

After lunch/nap-time, we headed to a vignoble (vinyard) to learn about wine production and taste some local white Muscadet. We were offered a glass of their 2009, 2005, and 2000 wine, made from hand picked Melon de Bourgogne grapes. I'm not usually a big fan of wine, but I really enjoyed the Clisson Muscadet, especially the 2005.

Today, Alyssa and I checked out the Natural History Museum of Nantes. The museum is only a 2 minute walk or so down the block from IES, so it was a pretty spur of the moment decision to go. I had a great time looking at million year old fossils, animal skeletons, and live snakes. It was also quite educational to learn the French names for all kinds of obscure rock types and animal species. 

Alyssa blends right in with the exhibit

Happy Easter everyone!

Marseille

The past couple weekends, I was able to venture beyond Nantes and visit some of the other cities France has to offer. The first weekend in May, a couple friends (Kathryn and Meghan) and I headed southeast to check out Marseille on the Mediterranean coast. We had a couple travel days left on the Eurail pass we purchased for our Spain trip way back when, so our little weekend excursion didn't break the bank. Marseille turned out to be a really bustling, interesting city, albeit quite dirty and littered. However, maneuvering around piles of dog poop and old newspapers was a small price to pay for the beautiful view of the ocean and fun cultural experiences we had. The three of us checked out an extensive flea market/rummage sale set up en plein air, with lots of French books, paintings, and antique knick-knacks. Meghan and I just looked around (and were particularly amused by a box of old, previously written on postcards), but Kathryn actually bought a pretty rosary for her grandmother.

After making our way through the flea market, we (naturally) stopped at a boulangerie for pain au chocolat and a bakery for café crème and chocolat chaud. So very French of us. The lady at the boulangerie was very nice and engaged us in an interesting conversation about dating, marriage, and childbearing. Apparently she finds that people are waiting too long to get married because they're more concerned about having money than being in love. We just wanted to get our pastries and run, but she seemed intent on convincing us to have children as soon as possible. Strange. Aside from being awkwardly forward life couns, the boulangerie lady offered us our first experience hearing a strong southern French accent. I can only assume she had a Marseillais accent, but she spoke French much differently than I'd ever heard before. If I didn't listen intently to her words, it almost sounded like she was speaking Spanish or Italian. I guess that makes sense, considering the city's relative proximity to those two countries. Anyway, after we escaped that conversation, we took our pastries and coffee/hot chocolates and enjoyed them outside the church St. Vincent-de-Paul. It was such a gorgeous day to relax outside with a couple friends in the south of France.

Vieux Port

Other highlights of the weekend include spending 10 minutes unsuccessfully attempting to unlock our hotel room door before the receptionist came to help us, goofing around Vieux Port, and stumbling upon a group of French boys playing instruments in the street while wearing dresses. Perhaps my favorite part of the weekend was our quest to find Notre Dame de la Garde, a breathtaking basilica on Marseille's highest natural point. It ended up being quite the arduous climb, especially in flip flops, but we made it to the top the the hill and found the church a little less than an hour before it closed for the day. I can't decide which was more beautiful: the view looking down on the whole city and the Mediterrean sea (including Château d'If of The Count of the Monte Cristo fame), or the unique and intricate mosaic decorated interior of Notre Dame de la Garde. In either case, I'm so glad we ventured up that hill!

View from the hill

Notre Dame de la Garde: Interior 

Notre Dame de la Garde: Exterior

To top off an already near-perfect weekend, the three of us spent the morning and early afternoon the next day (Sunday) before our train picnicking and tanning on the beach. The weather was perfect and the background noise was delightful: ocean tide lapping up on the shore, French families chatting excitedly together, and an intense 'volleyball' game where the players were only allowed to use their heads or feet to get the ball over the net.

Enjoying a delicious brioche & jam sandwich on the beach

As if I'm not spoiled enough, the next weekend I took another trip--this time to Paris--to spend a few days with my friend Shelvy from high school. So stay tuned for an update about that (and more!).

Normandy

A couple weekends ago, I went on an excursion with my study abroad program to Normandy, a region in the north of France. We left IES around 8am on Saturday, and arrived in Caen by noon. The bus dropped us off right in front of the Château de Caen (built by William the Conquerer c. 1060!), so naturally we explored that first. We enjoyed a picnic lunch next to a patch of flowers in the shape of a butterfly, right in front of the impressive castle.

How many people can say they've had a picnic
in the shadow of an 11th century French castle?

The weather was supposed to be terrible for the weekend, and our program director advised us to dress for cold, so it was tempting to just lay there and soak up the glorious sun when the warnings turned out to be unfounded. Instead, we walked around Caen and discovered its many marvels, including Eglise St. Pierre, Abbaye aux Hommes, and Eglise St. Etienne. It really is a beautiful city rich with tradition and history.

The next day, we got back on our big coach buses to head to les plages de débarquement (D-Day Landing Beaches), the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, and Point du Hoc. I had visited these places already while I was in France during high school, but that didn't make my second time any less emotional or moving. One of the professors from IES came on the trip with us to explain the historical significance of each places we visited. It was interesting to hear about the American contributions to the French war effort, but from a French perspective. 

Arromanches

American cemetery

Pointe du Hoc, standing in a bomb crater from WWII

This past weekend I visited Marseille with my friends Kathryn and Meghan, so check back for an update about my adventures in the south of France! 

Best of March

The time is absolutely flying by! I feel like I just landed here in Nantes for the semester, but here I am already at the end of March. The last few weeks have been pretty busy for me between studying for and taking midterm exams (which went pretty well!) and enjoying the warm Spring weather. Here the some of my March highlights:

When I returned to my room after my first day back to classes after winter break, I found a vase of flowers and a little wrapped present from my host mom. The present had a post-it note that said "petit cadeau de printemps" (small gift of spring), and turned out to be a beautiful beaded bracelet. My host mother is so sweet. Since then, she has replaced the flowers in my room a few times with fresh different varieties, which puts me in such a spring mood.

A couple weekends ago, I went to a (free) tasting of local wine, cheese, and other regional specialties. I don't know much of anything about wine quality or taste, but it was a lot of fun to talk to the vintners of Nantes and get some free samples. I also tried escargot, salsa, cheese, and a little individual-sized cake. If I wasn't afraid of breaking a wine bottle or spilling snail juice all over my luggage, I would love to bring some Nantes delicacies back to the States.  

Cheers! Wine tasting with my friend Jacob

Last week I finally went kayaking for the first time! Every time I walk home along the river I see a bunch of people canoeing, kayaking, and rowing, and I wanted a piece of the action. My friend Devin and I signed up for a canoe/kayak phys. ed. class with the University of Nantes, so we met up with the "professor" and four other students to head to the river. It was so much fun, but we didn't bring a change of clothes, so we were pretty wet for most of the rest of the afternoon. So worth it. Next week we're going to play a game that looks somewhat like basketball, but you use your kayak paddle to gain control of the ball and launch it into the basket/net. We watched some people do it last week, and it looks pretty awesome.

I promise we actually went in the water, I just didn't want to get my camera wet

For St. Patrick's Day, I met up with a bunch of (American) friends from IES and some French amis from Conversation Club and various activities at the University. We naturally gravitated towards the only Irish pub in town, John McByrne's, as did seemingly everyone else in Nantes. Despite the enormous group of people in the street, it was a lot of fun to experience a French St. Patrick's Day. For the most part it seemed like only people under the age of 25 acknowledged the holiday here--my host parents didn't even know it was St. Patty's Day and my grammar professor laughed when we asked her what she was planning on doing to celebrate.

 This past weekend, I stopped quickly by Les Machines de l'Ile, a permanent cultural and artistic project (and major Nantes tourist attraction) with giant mechanical animals. I wasn't there long and didn't want to spend money, so I didn't go in the warehouse to see the whole lot of machine creatures, but I did get to see the most famous one--the enormous elephant! It can walk, shoot water out of it's trunk, and carry a group of people on its back. I'll have to return some time soon to catch a ride!

On Tuesday, we had the March birthday party at IES. This month's cake was some sort of fruit medley tart...I don't recall the exact ingredients, but it was quite tasty. I'm sure going to miss singing "Joyeux Anniversaire" and tasting a new variety of dessert every month. Maybe I can continue the tradition with my res life staff next semester.  

The past few days have been absolutely gorgeous outside. I've always found Nantes to be a beautiful city, but with clear blue skies and 65 degree weather, it's even more so. I've been enjoying the sunlight by relaxing along the river, going on picnics, and promenading through pretty gardens. I just discovered the Jardin des Plantes (Garden of Plants) today, which is great place to take a relaxing and scenic stroll, observe wildlife (and adorable French children!), or take pleasing nature photos. Plus it's only a 10 minute walk from my house!

Alyssa in the Jardin des Plantes

Tonight, my friend Katie had a dinner party at her host families house. It was a great time, and turned out to be a group with a lot people I don't often hang out with or know very well, so it was a nice change of pace. We had a simple but delicious chicken, vegetable, and rice meal with rich chocolate cake for dessert. Afterwards, we played a round of telephone pictionary, which was hilarious as usual. This group must be better at drawing than the one with which I went to Spain, because most of the final sentences retained most of the elements in the original sentence. The girl who sat to my left and received all my drawings was luckily on the same wavelength as me--she was even able to successfully interpret a drawing I did of Mrs. Pacman eating a squirrel sandwich.

Tomorrow I leave for a weekend field trip with IES to Caen and the D-Day beaches in Normandy. In preparation for the trip, a group of us watched Il Faut Sauver le Soldat Ryan (Saving Private Ryan), about the U.S. Normandy Landings during World War II. We're traveling with a French historian, so I expect it will be both an emotionally moving and informative weekend. I'll let you know in a few days!

Espagne Part 2: Seville and Madrid

Pepe's house

After a picturesque six hour train ride, we finally made it to the Seville train station on Tuesday (March 1). I thought the weather had been nice in Barcelona, but I needed to take off my jacket, roll up my sleeves, and put on my sunglasses when I stepped outside the station in Seville. Since we had all our luggage with us, we decided to head over to our couchsurfing host Pepe’s house to drop everything off.  It turned out that Pepe lives 40 minutes or so outside the city center in a small town called Mairena del Alcor, so we had to walk a bit and take a bus to get there. When we arrived in Mairena, Pepe was waiting at the bus stop to drive us to his home. Pepe has been hosting travelers for the last six months, and has only just begun learning English. Even so, he was extremely gracious and was able to communicate pretty well with us. He dropped us off at his house then headed back to work while we made ourselves at home. We lounged around in the glorious 65 degree weather next to Pepe’s pool, which was not at all clean enough to swim in, but still a nice place to bask in the sun. After unpacking and soaking in our share of Vitamin D, we headed out to explore Mairena del Alcor and do some grocery shopping for the next few days. It was cool to experience Spain away from all the touristy craziness that we had seen in Barcelona.

After Pepe got off work at 11pm, he made us traditional Spanish paella. He invited a couple friends to hang out and help around the kitchen: Chico, a full-blooded gypsy; and Nolasco, a famous Spanish rock star. The meal preparation was quite a process, as he kept adding new ingredients (onions, green peppers, garlic, a whole chicken, pork, two bottles of beer, calamari, shrimp, mussels, rice, etc.). We finally sat down for dinner around 1:30am, but the meal was pure genius and well worth the wait.

Wednesday morning for breakfast, we made Nutella crêpes and ate the most delicious oranges which we hand-picked from the orange tree in Pepe’s backyard. We then headed to the bus stop to spend the day sight-seeing in Seville. Luckily we took a wrong turn on the way to the cathedral, because we stumbled upon the beautiful Plaza de España, a majestic and intricately decorated building with a surrounding moat. The best part of our visit here is that for only about 1€ each, we got to rent boats to row around the moat! It took us awhile to figure out how to maneuver in the water, but we figured it out eventually (mostly thanks to Alyssa, who was a coxswain on her high school crew team).

Fun fact about the Plaza de España: a scene from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones was filmed there!

Sorry, it's in Spanish...

That night, Pepe took us out to his friend’s bar, where we were treated to free rum and coke and a taste of the Spanish night life. The bartender taught us a couple Spanish dances, then let us show everyone the “traditional American” Cotton-Eyed Joe and Electric Slide. It was hard to tell if the other patrons were laughing at us or with us, but it was a good time nonetheless.

On Thursday morning, most of the group headed to Madrid to see [our paella buddy] Nolasco in concert, but four of us stayed in Seville for another day. Those of us who remained were able to visit the Seville Cathedral, which is the largest Gothic cathedral, the third-largest church in the world, and the burial site of Christopher Columbus. It was absolutely enormous and breathtaking inside—especially the altar, which was unbelievably detailed and pure gold.

I was also able to meet up with Kylene, one of my residents from last year who is studying abroad in Seville for the semester.

Me and Ky outside the cathedral

Plaza Mayor in the rain

Early the next morning, the four of us boarded a train to Madrid to meet up with the others. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy when we got there, but that didn’t stop us from walking around the city a bit and visiting the famous Plaza Mayor and Plaza del Sol. It was nice to see the city without the typical swarms of people around, but soon enough, we reached the point of being miserably wet and cold so we looked into indoor sightseeing. We ended up checking out some impressive paintings and sculptures at The Museo Nacional del Prado before heading to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Dinner got quite interesting halfway through when we started getting serenaded by a live singer in a giant sombrero.

The next day (Saturday), was our last full day in Spain. Luckily, the weather had improved considerably and we were able to more comfortably explore the wonders of Madrid. The streets were so full; it was barely recognizable as the same city we had seen the day before. We ventured off the beaten path a bit to a park with black swans swimming in a stream, colorful statues scattered about, and trees that look like giant broccoli. While taking a series of goofy group pictures next to the stream, Sam spotted an Illinois Wesleyan alum he knew walk by us—what a small world! Naturally, Sam, Kathryn, and I called him over to pose for an IWU picture to document the magical moment.

IWU bonding

We then walked over to our second museum of the trip, the Reina Sofia. I was able to take a picture of Picasso’s renowned Guernica before being yelled at by a museum worker for breaking the rules of the no photo zone.

She's just about to kick me out

I had such a great time in Spain, but by the time Sunday rolled around, I was more than ready to return to France. When I got back to Nantes Sunday night, it felt like home for the first time. There's nothing like spending a week surrounded by incomprehensible Spanish to make me appreciate every aspect of the French language and culture I know and love.